(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a carrier structure for partitioning and/or inner partitioning with integrated heating and/or cooling.
The invention also relates to a mount and a chute for realizing such a structure, and a process for making a partitioning and/or inner partitioning implementing same.
The present invention will find its application in the field of the building materials. It is related in particular to a new partitioning and/or inner partitioning structure. The invention is related at the same time to the field of the heating systems for closed rooms.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In this respect, various heating systems applied to a closed room are presently known. Irrespective of the source of energy, heat exchange means are distributed inside this room. In particular, it is known to install in a construction radiators or other heating panels, even devices known as fan convectors, such devices ensuring a transfer of energy from a cold or hot source to a room, either by radiation effect, natural convection or forced convection. There are also known heating and/or cooling floor systems, which consist in integrating into a floor slab heating or cooling means in the form of a network of pipes through which passes a heat transfer fluid, or sheets of heating resistances. In this respect, such sheets of heating resistances are also likely to be integrated under the roof or the ceiling. Actually, though such sheets of heating resistances can be integrated in all parts of a construction, their implementation is reserved to specialized craftsmen and, in any case, the source of energy can only be electric power.
Finally, when the source of energy results from a heat transfer fluid, the heating or cooling occurs, as evoked above, either through panels or other equipment fixed to the wall or inserted on the floor, or through a slab expressly designed for this purpose. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible to equip an existing construction, in particular within the framework of a renovation, with a heating slab with fluid circulation, so that the renovation of a heating and/or cooling system in a construction can occur only through the installation or the replacement of these heat-exchanging panels referred to as radiators, fan convectors, radiating panels, etc . . . .
Obviously, the connection of these panels to one single heat source raises the problem of integration into a room of the network of pipes necessary to this end. Though there are presently various solutions for making this network of pipes invisible in the new construction, in the case of a renovation it is often visible, or requires, as in EP 0 022 646, to be mounted against the surface, then covered by a surface paneling, which requires space and is not very esthetic. The former embodiments generally relate to heating devices, but none of them is designed as a building material directly usable by the craftsmen.
Therefore, one could note that within the framework of the improvement, thus of the renovation of a building, it is usual to re-examine the subdivision of the space and especially to improve its degree of insulation by means of a cladding on the inner side of the external walls. This cladding is carried out by means of lining panels in the form of plaster boards combined with a thickness of an insulating material such as polystyrene or polyurethane, even glass wool or rock wool.
It is also usual to line these external walls by means of a structure that is usually used for the partitioning of a construction. This structure is comprised of metallic profile bars including mainly mounts the upper and lower ends of which are fixed in rails applied against the floor and the ceiling of the construction. Thus, against this structure, whether on one side in the case of lining panels or on both sides in the case of partitions, can often be applied cladding plates, often in the form of plasterboards or of any composite material.
The structure itself has a certain thickness permitting the installation of an insulating material, whether sound or heat-insulating material. In addition, the mounts are regularly perforated with openings for the passing-through of electrical cable channels, even of other conduits.
Such structures largely proved reliable and are regarded as materials that perfectly meet the constraints of longevity, insulation and mechanical strength.
It is within the framework of a first inventive step that it was contemplated to integrate in such a structure a network of heating and/or cooling elements for the installation of heating and/or cooling in a room, which system has a higher effectiveness than the known radiator-type panels or the like. Indeed, though such radiators are necessarily of reduced size and are better adapted to high-temperature heat sources, the integration of heating systems in partitions or inner partitions permits to define radiation panels with a very large surface improving the heat transfer for a better distribution in a room, this starting from a so-called low-temperature heat source. Therefore, such a solution proves particularly well-suited for the renewable-energy heat sources such as geothermal, solar energy, etc . . . .